Congratulations to all of our 2021 graduates: You’ve risen to the occasion, and this is your moment.
We are so happy for you, and we can’t wait to see the difference you make in the world after graduation.
Congratulations also go to our student award winners from the Graduate Programs in Accounting and the Evening MBA Program.
In the Graduate Accounting Programs, five students received Graduate Accounting Academic Excellence Award:
- Christina Diane Cruea
- Patrick D. Dimmitt
- Shelby R. Pake
- Derrick A. Randall
- Gninhinninchionni Fatima Soro
In the Kelley School Evening MBA Program, five students received Evening MBA Academic Excellence Awards:
- Sarah Marie Krampe
- Peter Joseph Marconi
- William McClain Vance
- Yifeng Wu
- Francis Michael Zirille
Two students received Evening MBA Leadership Distinctions:
- Briana Jamie Bauer
- Francis Michael Zirille
Seven students received Evening MBA Leadership Awards:
- Katherine Desmond
- Shwetha V. Krishnan
- Margaret Kuenzli
- Lauren Renea Sheplock
- Abigail Mae Somers
- Sarah Jane Stoesz
- Emily Austen Williams
Cinthya La Rosa received the Evening MBA Program David E. Westerhaus Leadership Award.
Please join us for a virtual ceremony on Sunday, May 16 at 6:00 PM ET to celebrate your achievements. There will be separate ceremonies for the undergraduate and graduate programs.
This is a moment that, for many, is years in the making. We asked just a few of our graduating students about their journeys – and the moments that made the experience worthwhile.
Patrick Dimmitt, MST’21
Patrick pursued his masters degree in taxation after he retired, so he could teach. It was 40 years ago that he walked to obtain his undergraduate degree, and this month — his youngest son and he are both receiving degrees! Patrick’s son Nathan graduated from Marian University and will begin his PhD studies in the new biomedical engineering program offered at IUPUI in the fall.
Looking back at your journey at the Kelley School Evening MBA Program, what are your favorite experiences? Do you have any favorite memories, classes or professors?
I began my coursework in the spring of 2020. Due to COVID-19 concerns, I spent little time on campus. I truly appreciated the effort of Professor Roger Ortman in allowing me to attend his class virtually. Professor Ortman is an adjunct faculty member who is a working tax professional, and I know accommodating me required additional time. His making this effort in the spring term as he dealt with filing season was very much appreciated, as was the thoroughness of his class preparation. I also very much appreciated the opportunity to take two independent studies under Professor James Motter. With his teaching schedule and other responsibilities as a full-time faculty member, I was grateful for his willingness to make these opportunities available to me. The work I did in these classes led to two publications that certainly helped as I sought a teaching position.
What have you gained from your time with Kelley that will help you in your career?
I went into my master’s study with over 38 years of experience in taxation, yet the courses I took significantly improved my abilities in tax research and interpretation.
Do you have a Kelley moment?
Having my first article accepted for publication in a well-known and respected tax journal was a high point for me.
What advice would you give to current students as you graduate?
Take advantage of the extensive research materials available to you as a student. The skills you develop will help tremendously in your career.
Shwetha Krishnan, MBA’21
Looking back at your journey in the Kelley School Evening MBA Program, what are your favorite experiences? Do you have any favorite memories, classes or professors?
Time flies when you have fun! It has been a great experience learning and networking in the MBA program at Kelley School of Business. From core classes to the marketing majors, every interaction has been an education that can be applied in the real world. I learned as much inside the classroom as I did with my peers and in the KIMWA organization. What I enjoyed most were the discussions in class on applying what we’d learned. The business cases and HBRs provided us insight into issues facing businesses today and a deep understanding of how to solve them.
One of my early favorites was the Emerging Markets Program with Dr. Cathy Bosner-Neal, where we were teamed up to help a small business based in Chile. Our client was Pot Garden – a women-led small business in the Corporate Gifts sector. This project involved working with a team of my peers and overcoming language and distance barriers to understand this business, its value proposition and then help her grow the business in a difficult economic and competitive landscape. This course is a microcosm of everything I learned in the program. My favorite part of this course was travelling to Chile to meet our client, fine tuning our recommendation once we were on the ground and presenting our work to her. The positive feedback from our client, and the fact that she immediately started to implement those recommendations was extremely satisfying. I built friendships for life on this journey.
Digital Marketing with Dr. Kim Saxton was another course that made a deep impact on me. Looking back, it was at the height of the pandemic when all small businesses were disproportionately impacted, and a part of this course was to refine the digital marketing strategy for a small business (again!). This course inspired me to pursue marketing as my major in the MBA. Having spent over 17 years in the software industry in deep technical work, this course pushed me beyond my comfort zone, challenged my creative gene and encouraged me to become a passionate proponent of digital marketing. In this course, we helped a local small business re-design the website and refine the digital marketing strategy to grow the business. The satisfaction and experience you get from helping real clients is amazing. The research, preparation and all the hard work paid off to see happy and satisfied smiles of our clients. These are experiences which I will cherish. Part of the learning in Kelley is not just from the professors in the classroom, but it is also from the diverse view of my peers.
To add to the above list of favorite professors, a big shout out to Judith Wright, my business law professor, Dr. Ndofor Hermann who taught us venture strategy, Kyle Anderson for economics and Dr. Josh Plaskoff, who discussed organizational behavior. All of them make the classes interesting, interactive and challenging. They are eager and willing to share their knowledge and also cultivate original thoughts from their students.
Outside of the classroom, I had the opportunity to interact with the Kelley community in multiple ways. I particularly enjoyed serving on the KIMWA [Kelley Indianapolis MBA Women’s Association] leadership team. It was the perfect forum to network and share our experiences. Eating brunch with women leaders and helping local volunteer groups was all part of the fun. I would love to stay engaged and contribute to the community being a proud alumnus.
What have you gained from your time with Kelley that will help you in your career?
For an experienced professional with over 17 years in the software industry, earning my Kelley MBA was the best decision for my career. My intent was to widen my perspective, understand multiple facets of a business and grow into a leadership role. That is precisely what Kelley provided. During my Kelley MBA, I have learned accounting, finance, business law, statistics, economics, organizational behavior and marketing. I have learned to seek consensus over a diverse set of views on a problem, how to sell my ideas to a skeptic, rise up to a challenge when a peer disagreed or enjoy the warm feeling of solving a real problem. I was able to apply a large proportion of learnings at work to better follow my company’s financials, business strategy, brand management and various other aspects that never before held my interest. Majoring in marketing has helped me develop the skills that I need to grow into the Product & Engineering leader I aspire to be in the near term.
The Kelley MBA has also ignited the entrepreneur in me. Coming from a family of entrepreneurs, it has inspired me to explore the market and identify areas of growth. Helping small businesses and local communities is my passion and I would love to contribute. Kelley has encouraged me to pursue these dreams and make them a reality. I would like to embark on a journey to apply my learnings to help small businesses realize their potential.
Do you have a Kelley moment?
Women in technology are so few and far-between. It is hard to find good mentors and women leaders to follow. Even though we are capable of achieving our goals, we are clouded by self-doubt and feel the need to prove ourselves at every step. My Kelley MBA has given me the confidence and the business knowledge to seek out leadership roles and be successful. Today, I lead multiple high-performing teams and am a mentor for the summer program for upcoming young women in tech.
What advice would you give to current students as you graduate?
Soak up the Kelley experience; it’s something to treasure all your life. The classroom learning is only half the experience you can extract from an MBA program. Venture out of your classroom, be a volunteer on the many programs that Kelley offers, network with the community of scholars and have fun as you do it. Some of the best interactions with your professors are after class. Meet with your peers and seniors during the many social outings every season. Immerse yourself completely, and be open to all experiences Kelley has to offer.
Molly Kuenzli, MBA’21
Looking back at your journey at the Kelley School Evening MBA Program, what are your favorite experiences? Do you have any favorite memories, classes or professors?
Looking back at my journey through the Kelley Evening MBA Program, some of my favorite experiences were also the ones that pushed me the most. Though orientation and Food Corp seemed like a challenge while taking part in them, they allowed me to develop professional and personal relationships with a lot of my classmates in a way that I wouldn’t have gotten just by attending lectures. Professor Kyle Anderson’s words during our induction dinner have always stuck with me: One of the best parts about this program is the people and the relationships you build with them. Without my classmates, especially during a year like 2020, my MBA experience would’ve been substantially less impactful.
What have you gained from your time with Kelley that will help you in your career?
Through my time at Kelley, the most important thing I’ve gained is confidence. It seems like almost every class had some component of jumping into a group meeting with people I didn’t know, but ultimately being able to talk through key milestones, execute to meet defined deadlines, and turn standard deliverables into impactful projects has made me a better business partner. Now more than ever, I’m comfortable diving into ambiguous situations with cross-functional teams with confidence, knowing that my finely-honed Kelley communication and collaboration skills can elevate the quality of my team’s work.
Do you have a Kelley moment?
I knew heading into the program, I was hoping for some big “Kelley moment.” What I wasn’t expecting is how often even the smallest interactions helped define my Kelley experience. Developing relationships with faculty outside class, making the most of our executive leadership courses, or even starting group chats with my Kelley classmates – every time I invested in myself or my relationships, the benefits returned tenfold. Each of these smaller instances ultimately culminated in what I consider a “Kelley moment.”
What advice would you give to current students as you graduate?
Get involved! Attend those trivia nights, spend the extra time before or after class to talk to your teachers of classmates. There have been so many times that I was able to lean on my classmates during core classes that weren’t my strong suit (and vice versa), which wouldn’t have been possible if I hadn’t gotten to know them as well. I took a leap of faith and got involved in KIMWA [Kelley Indianapolis MBA Women’s Association], even though I knew I was about to start a new role at my company and would have even less free time to devote to something outside work or school. Two years later, I’m the president of KIMWA- but more importantly, I’ve been able to give back to the community, developed connections with the Kelley Evening MBA faculty, and established a network across cohorts that will set me up for success once I graduate. You can make your Kelley Evening MBA experience whatever you want. Getting involved at Kelley outside of just attending classes allowed me to take an active role in ensuring that dedicating these past two years of my life toward an MBA program were worth it.
Yifeng Wu, MBA’21
Looking back at your journey at the Kelley School Evening MBA Program, what are your favorite experiences? Do you have any favorite memories, classes or professors?
I learned how to solve real business problems by using everything we learned in class, and I also had the chance to team up with other students with very different backgrounds. I still remember Professor Kyle Anderson taught us how to predict chicken sandwich sales and inventory using Business Analytics, and Professor Greg Durham explained how we make business/personal decisions using Time Value of Money (TVM) in his Financial Management class.
What have you gained from your time with Kelley that will help you in your career?
Besides the academic knowledge part, I think another important gain I saw was how my business sense was built throughout the Kelley EMBA program. I think those skills will benefit my career for sure in future.
Do you have a Kelley moment?
I received the Evening MBA Academic Excellence Award, which I think is definitely something I am really proud of. I think this is a good example of “No Pain, No Gain,” and it’s a message I am trying to send to my kids, as well.
What advice would you give to current students as you graduate?
To be successful in this program, we really have to dedicate ourselves to the courses we signed up for. That means you will need to study at nights and during weekends, and you might not have as much free time. However, if you put in the time, the outcome will be great. The thing is — you have to face all the problems and go through them by yourself; this is the learning process and the purpose of this program. I had a lot of late-night struggling for the assignments and exams, as well, but when I accomplished them, I felt great.
Congratulations to all of our graduates. From all of us at the Kelley School of Business, we are so proud of your accomplishments.
To see more outstanding students, head to our social media pages @KelleyIndy. To be featured, please send us a DM to our Instagram and Facebook pages (@KelleyIndy), or tag us @KelleyIndy!
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